Madonna of the Evening Flowers by Amy Lowell
Wow. I think this is the first poem by Amy Lowell I’ve read that is not negative, bitter, and/or depressing. And yet, I still like it.
Madonna of the Evening Flowers
By Amy Lowell
All day long I have been working
Now I am tired.
I call: “Where are you?”
But there is only the oak tree rustling in the wind.
The house is very quiet,
The sun shines in on your books,
On your scissors and thimble just put down,
But you are not there.
Suddenly I am lonely:
Where are you?
I go about searching.
Then I see you,
Standing under a spire of pale blue larkspur,
With a basket of roses on your arm.
You are cool, like silver,
And you smile.
I think the Canterbury bells are playing little tunes,
You tell me that the peonies need spraying,
That the columbines have overrun all bounds,
That the pyrus japonica should be cut back and rounded.
You tell me these things.
But I look at you, heart of silver,
White heart-flame of polished silver,
Burning beneath the blue steeples of the larkspur,
And I long to kneel instantly at your feet,
While all about us peal the loud, sweet Te Deums of the Canterbury bells.
Amy Lowell wrote a lot of passionate, erotic poetry that is not negative or depressing. She often gets a bad rap in literary histories, which I try to correct in my book, “Amy Lowell Among Her Contemporaries,” available at amazon.com, bn.com, and iUniverse,com I’m also writing a biography of Lowell that is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I’m interested in hearing from readers of Lowell’s work
It is not my intention to misrepresent Amy Lowell. I like her depressing poems, so I don’t consider myself to be giving her a bad rap. I’ve not read nearly as much of her work as I want to (though I have the Complete Poetical Works of Amy Lowell), and perhaps most of what I’ve read is the bitter stuff since I gravitate to it. I’m always open to suggestions of poems to post!